Netbackup 6.5.2 VCB with ESX 3.5

[Bacman23]

When trying to back up VM's with Netbackup 6.5.2, the job fails with an error of Error bpbrm(pid=5164) db_FLISTsend failed: file read failed (13). This happens in the 2nd job spawned after starting a manual backup. The snapshot is created fine on my mount point, but seems to be getting deleted before the second job can backup to tape. I have attached the bpfis log from Netbackup.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

[Bacman23]

On further review, I am able to back up the VM's no problem using option 1 for FullVM, but receive the error while using option 2 for MappedFullVM, which would allow me to restore individual files

[milson]

I have seen this same error only when trying to backup Windows Server 2008 virtuals as type 2. Type 1 does work fine for Server 2008 (although of course, the sync driver in vmtools is not yet available for server 2008, so backups would be crash-consistent only).

I don't get the error in any other supported type 2 backup scenario (e.g. server 2003).

I have a case open with Veritas, they have already confirmed the bug w/ 2008 in their lab.

[milson · Accepted solution]

Just a note Symantec informed me type 2 backups of server 2008 boxes will be supported as of NetBackup 6.5.4. The issue was with the boot.ini being gone in Server 2008, which is what they use(d) to gather volume info during the backup process.

On that note, it's possible that if you see this error on server 2003/2000 it could indicate issues with your boot.ini or the NB client gaining access to it (purely a guess).

[Bacman23]

That sounds reasonable. I will give that a shot this weekend and let you know. Thanks for the information.

[kwajalein]

Say, did anything ever work out with this?

[Bacman23]

Yes, what Milson said in the above post proved to be true. I was using 2k8 servers for testing.

[milson]

FYI: From my Symantec case on the issue. They provided us a temporary binary, that went on the backup proxy. Or, as you can see you could use type1 backups for 2008.

SOLUTION/WORKAROUND:

Mapped/VM Backups of a Windows 2008 Server is not officially supported until NetBackup 6.5.4. Provided a binary to extend support of that feature until the release of 6.5.4.

Workaround:

Perform a Type 1 Backup of the Virtual Machine.

REFERENCE: ET1370521, Technote 306922